EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After Doug Ford’s latest trip to Washington, D.C. to lobby American political leaders against President Donald Trump’s looming tariffs, governors appeared split on the issue.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, told reporters that the premiers who came down — Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston — had a receptive audience.
Polis is a supporter of free trade among the U.S.-Canada-Mexico bloc and said he’s not sure if the president’s tariff threats are “a master negotiating strategy” or if they amount to “just stabbing ourselves a bunch of times.”
He said as much to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in a meeting this week.
“My point was, whatever you're doing in this area … get it done quickly here, so we get the stability we need for business and investment,” said Polis, adding that business investment requires a predictable and stable environment. With an unclear picture of what the cross-border trading environment will look like, business investment has frozen up, according to Polis.
However, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, spoke in favour of the tariffs as a way to kick-start the U.S. manufacturing sector. He said his state lost out to Canada on a European manufacturer’s North American plant — and while he didn’t name it, Volkswagen had considered Oklahoma a frontrunner for its giant PowerCo battery plant before ultimately choosing St. Thomas, Ontario.
“We want to support American jobs paying into our health-care system, paying into our social security system, and so having American jobs is really, really important for this administration. It's important to Oklahomans,” said Stitt.
The governors also weighed in on how much they believe President Trump will listen to Democrats like Polis, over Republicans like Stitt.
Stitt said Trump said himself at their recent meeting he’d listen to Democrats.
“I don't know if he's making a joke, but he said, ‘If a Democrat governor and Republican governor call me the same time, I want to take the Democrat governor's call first,’” he said.
“Problem is,” Polis chimed in, “we don’t all have his number, and you guys do.”
All governors have Miller’s number, however, Stitt added, and he thinks Trump listens to all sides.
“He’s a businessman,” Stitt said of Trump. “He’s not ideological. He wants to get things done.”
Just who has the president’s ear is important to Ford and other Canadian leaders, with Democrats generally onside with free trade between the countries and Republicans more in line with the president.
Stitt wasn’t one of the three governors Ford had meetings with on the sidelines of the National Governors Association winter meeting on Friday, but he spoke with Ford by phone in December. He told The Trillium on Friday he couldn't really remember a conversation with the premier of Ontario now.
"Is that the premier that has the oil?" Stitt asked, referring to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
That’s not surprising, according to Ford’s political opponents in the ongoing election at home in Ontario.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who called for a “unified, strong Canada-first approach,” asserted that Ford is “obviously not making an impact.”
“This is Doug Ford, he's been ineffective in his attempts to turn this around,” she said at a campaign stop in Scarborough on Saturday morning. “I'm not surprised this isn't working, because I don't think he knows what he's doing.”
During a speech to supporters, she accidentally referred to Ford at one point as “Donald,” before saying she doesn’t trust the PC leader to stand up for Ontario after he was caught on camera saying he was “100 per cent” happy Trump won the election.
“I will stand up to Donald Trump, and I will fight for every single job and defend every single industry in this province every single day,” Stiles said.
Ford put it differently.
At a campaign stop in Thunder Bay on Saturday, Ford said he’d stopped at a bank on the way and all five people there said their number one issue was Trump’s tariffs, and they asked him to keep fighting.
“Boy, I won’t stop fighting,” Ford said. “I promise you, I will stand up to anyone, including Donald Trump, to support workers, to help businesses keep their lights on and to provide a lifeline to the community's hardest hit.”
The governors he has spoken with are all interested in Canada’s critical minerals, he said, and they, along with energy, are Canada’s “ace in the hole” against Trump.
Trump announced 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canadian imports to the U.S., save for energy, which was to be subject to a 10 per cent levy. He then offered a 30-day reprieve after Canada agreed to measures related to border security, including naming a fentanyl czar and designating some drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
That tariff pause ends on March 4.
Canadian steel and aluminum are also facing a 25 per cent tariff, which would be in addition to the 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs, starting March 12.
Election day in Ontario is Feb. 27.
-With files from Charlie Pinkerton and Sneh Duggal